Wracked with angst over the fate of our beloved and horribly misgoverned Republic, the DiploMad returns to do battle on the world wide web, swearing death to political correctness, and pulling no punches.

Featured Post

We live in a time of government by con men, women, and those of flexible and reassignable gender. In the last few days this bitter truth ha...

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Obama Gets His Progressive "War"

So Obama finally got himself a war, er, uh, a Prolonged Counter-Hatred Operation (PCHO), just in time for the mid-term elections.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the man who vowed to end "Bush's endless war"; who would heal the planet; who apologized to the Muslim world for the United States being the United States; who has tried to gut our military and destroy our network of global alliances, yes, that very man, now has the USAF and the USN turning small groups of Muslims people who claim to be Muslim but aren't really because "Islam is a religion of peace" into desert stew.

Taking a page from several past progressive war leaders such as Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, JFK, LBJ and Bill Clinton, he has launched into a sort of war with no clear exit strategy, no plan to win, no definition of "win," and no intention of trying to "win." He just needs to get through the mid-term elections without a major disaster while looking "Presidential."

The whole thing is repulsive beyond words.

In principle, I have no problem with spending our tax money to kill jihadis. The questions, however, immediately arise: Which jihadis? How many? When will we know that the last jihadi who needs killing has been killed? Well, the last question is probably answerable: the day after the mid-terms.

This whole mess is Obama's doing. He built it. He made clear that we will not stand in the way of Iran's adquiring a nuke capability. He threw out the victory in Iraq; made a hash of Libya, Yemen, and Egypt; drew erasable "red lines" in Syria; and ensured we would not even defend our own borders. He can try to blame the intel community and his advisers, but we all know the truth. He has no stomach for confronting the enemies of the United States, because he, himself, is an enemy of the United States. He will "act" only when it becomes politically impossible not to do "something."

So, now, he does "something."

That "something" consists of conducting a very limited bombing campaign that will do little to nothing to dismantle ISIS. He, in other words, is doing the wrong thing. If you're going to bomb, then bomb; annihilate the jihadis. Blowing up a HUMVEE here, or an old dilapidated building there, does nothing except set the stage for the jihadis claiming victory over the West. We will eventually tire of the campaign, even without the mid-terms. The jihadis will still be there; we won't.

At this point in time, when we have thrown away what we won in Iraq, and are doing the same in Afghanistan, I can't help but wonder if the better course would be to do nothing. Well, that is, nothing except support the Israelis and the Kurds, and tell the rulers of Iran and Syria that they now have a serious problem bearing down on their turf: crazed Sunni jihadis! Let the Shias and the Sunnis kill each other by the thousands. Meanwhile, as I said, we support the Israelis and the Kurds, and frack, frack, frack.

I recently watched a doco on some Kurdish ladies from Pashmerga with their AK47's slotting Jihadis from IS. Someone correct me if I am wrong but if you are a fearless warrier of "the Religion of Peace" and get slotted by a female you don't go to Paradise and definitely don't get 72 young undefiled goats so it seems to me we should be giving the Kurds an extensive supply of the means of sending the Jihadis to whatever Hell Hole awaits them.Just to be neighbourly of course.

gDay David, that sounds perfectly reasonable to me. The thing about the Kurds is that they have nowhere else to go other than where they are so they are going to stay put and fight - anybody, anywhere and anytime. They seem by proof to be rather good at it don't they?

Indeed just like the Israelis, and more power to them. Meanwhile it seems that the consistently zealous and warlike Kurds are kicking ISIS arse and taking names. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29429971

Looking on from afar - Australia - but being familiar with the Kurdish plight over the years I'd say that that the Kurdish attitude is the classic: "the enemy of mine enemy is my friend" but with the accompanying rider: "but don't fuq with us or you will be sorry, we are fighting for our very existence here".If Obamayomama underestimates the Kurds he'll be making a huge mistake. He should ask the Brits for their histories of faithful Kurdish service as 'levies' (militia-type volunteers) in the then-British mandated territory of Mesopotamia. Alongside Christian Assyrians the Kurds were the hardcore 'boots on the ground' when Britain considered permanent Regular Army garrisons to be not financially viable. They were very good back then and kicked Iraqi ass severely in 1941 and they still are which is why the Iraqis are afraid of them.

To take your theme a little farther, we are now getting BDA laundry lists very similar to Nam, command and control center here, supply depot there, armed vehicle (white Toyota p/u's are taking a particularly bad beating) somewhere. We have sent advisers, we have sent troops to protect the advisers.

We have provided Iran and Syria with a nifty air arm and an intelligence collection asset. I agree with your analysis in that it's all political considerations.It (the ISIS scourge) has given Iran the perfect cover to get the bomb pronto.I think Baghdad will fall in the next two weeks and we'll see the introduction of large Irani ground formations. Yemen that shining example of Obama policy has fallen to the Shia allowing the Iranians a slow encirclement of Saudi Arabia.

Usually I'm writing something smartass snarky, but I just don't feel it. Wait maybe this: since the Administration won't name it I will; Operation "Save the Senate".

"It (the ISIS scourge) has given Iran the perfect cover to get the bomb pronto."

This is the real danger of this whole fiasco. The One has made it crystal clear to the world that he has no interest in any meaningful military action, even where our interests are at stake (after all, our rather half-hearted attacks on ISIS only came because of public pressure on our Nobel Laureate).

Iran getting nukes, or just a latent capability, is going to be a game-changer. Nuclear deterrence between Iran and Israel is not going to be stable - one of them is going to shoot first, and then the world will go to a very dark place.

And then there's the potential for blowback. Bombing ISIS for PR purposes instead of trying to actually destroy the vermin will increase the likelihood of "workplace violence" here at home.

Of course, it'll be "their fault I wasn't informed" when it happens. I cannot believe the surreal idiocy of this admin, claiming that everything is working as Sanaa is occupied by hostile militias, we conduct a PR Kinetic Operation(tm) and God knows what else.

But hey, Hillary will be the best candidate because CBS said so or something. I feel like crawling under my desk and staying there.

Things are not looking good on the Ebola front either. Health policy expert Betsy McCaughey points out in an article on American Spectator this week that the response is too little, too late, and that resources would be better spent on the countries around the current outbreak that don't have it yet.

Through all Obama's dissembling, lying, blaming others and claiming he only learned about something from the newspapers, his base supports him. This is the worst part of this whole affair. We can now see that some 30% of Democrats are blind to the obvious and impervious to reason. Support the party and its leader, the hell with the country or our children's future. It is frightening just how dedicated this cohort is. Use government resources to damage the Republicans, lie about having done so, and destroy electoral integrity through phony registrations and "finding" missing ballots after the election. Alas Babylon! Obama has indeed fundamentally changed America.

You also should consider that the CoS has SAVAK or whatever goddamned islamofascist update there is on speedial. Since the raids are hitting fuck-all

THIS is all theatre, girls. You are being sold a bill of goods by an absolute TRAITOR to the Republic and his dicksucking minions. The plan is clear; degrade the US armed forces and reduce their capability. You do know, Choomster McWatchthisdrive expended 47% of 2015 Tomahawk production for 2015 on day one right?? And he personally has cut the production of those missiles off after that

I don't have to tell you, Kepha, who have intelligently deployed your quotation marks, that there are no moderates. There have never been any moderates. There never will be any moderates. Young men willing to kill are, pretty much by definition, immoderate.

This is not war. It is a PR exercise. War is soldiers on the ground, closing with and killing the enemy (supported by gunships, tanks and air support) and holding the ground that the enemy previously held.

Spiegel has finally translated one of its articles on the shocking disarray in the German military into English.http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/ramshackle-army-at-odds-with-berlin-s-global-aspirations-a-994607.htmlThey have been trying to help the Kurds but are plagued by basic equipment problems.

Hello Bob, this is off-topic I know but when I saw this article I couldn't help but think about all the Jewish thinkers, scientists (e.g Einstein), writers etc who did a runner from Nazi Germany in the middle and later 30s (good thing too) to save themselves and their families. After Kristallnacht the writing was truly on the wall and there is a school of thought which suggests that had Jewish intelligentsia NOT been persecuted and instead added into the German war machine the Third Reich would have been a damn sight harder to beat. I find that very plausible.

Here's the link:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29450930

I say that if these Russian folks wish to get out from under Putin's quasi-fascist regime then the West should welcome them with open arms and research grants.

About Me

W. Lewis Amselem, long time US Foreign Service Officer; now retired; served all over the world and under all sorts of conditions. Convinced the State Department needs to be drastically slashed and reformed so that it will no longer pose a threat to the national interests of the United States.